Page:Tales from the Arabic, Vol 1.djvu/277



When the evening evened, the king sat in his privy closet and summoning the vizier, required of him the promised story. So Er Rehwan said, “Know, O king, that STORY OF THE RICH MAN AND HIS WASTEFUL SON.

There was once a sage of the sages, who had three sons and sons’ sons, and when they waxed many and their posterity multiplied, there befell dissension between them. So he assembled them and said to them, ‘Be ye one hand against other than you and despise not [one another,] lest the folk despise you, and know that the like of you is as the rope which the man cut, when it was single; then he doubled [it] and availed not to cut it; on this wise is division and union. And beware lest ye seek help of others against yourselves or ye will fall into perdition, for by whosesoever means ye attain your desire, his word will have precedence of your word. Now I have wealth which I will bury in a certain place, so it may be a store for you, against the time of your need.’

Then they left him and dispersed and one of the sons fell to spying upon his father, so that he saw him hide the treasure without the city. When he had made an end of